Bottas Wins Again To Extend Championship Lead

Valtteri Bottas scored his third win from four GP3 Series races with a commanding victory in Race 1 at Spa-Francorchamps to extend his championship lead.

The Finn started from second on the grid, but passed ART teammate and polesitter James Calado for the lead around the outside of La Source. From there he pulled away to an eight second lead by the halfway point, before cruising to the checkered flag.

While Calado had a quiet race on his way to second, Nigel Melker and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs fought over third place during the first half of the race. Quaife-Hobbs passed Melker at La Source at the start of the race, before the duo exchanged positions several times over the following laps. Melker eventually kept hold of the position.

Alexander Sims put a lowly starting position of 16th behind him to climb to seventh on the opening lap, and was soon harrying Conor Daly for fifth. A few laps later he attempted to get a run on the young American into the Bus Stop chicane, only to spin at Blanchimont in the process. Though he lost no places in the incident itself he soon fell down the order and into retirement, with his team reporting steering issues.

Bottas' victory extends his points lead to 11 points, with Calado now his nearest rival in second place. Despite Bottas extending his lead, the title race will now go down to the final round at Monza regardless of the Race 2 result.

Race 1 results – 12 laps:

Pos

Driver

Team

Time/Gap

1

Valtteri Bottas

Lotus ART

31:02.902

2

James Calado

Lotus ART

6.495

3

Nigel Melker

RSC Mucke Motorsport

13.979

4

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs

Marussia Manor Racing

21.117

5

Conor Daly

Carlin

24.915

6

Tom Dillmann

Addax Team

34.338

7

Nico Muller

Jenzer Motorsport

40.898

8

Richie Stanaway

Lotus ART

43.583

9

Lewis Williamson

MW Arden

45.330

10

Ivan Lukashevich

Status Grand Prix

50.869

11

Mitch Evans

MW Arden

51.538

12

Rio Haryanto

Marussia Manor Racing

53.789

13

Aaro Vainio

Tech 1 Racing

61.520

14

Alex Fontana

Jenzer Motorsport

65.130

15

Michael Christensen

RSC Mucke Motorsport

66.596

16

Gabby Chaves

Addax Team

69.195

17

Tamas Pal Kiss

Tech 1 Racing

73.548

18

Matias Laine

Marussia Manor Racing

74.024

19

Simon Trummer

MW Arden

74.988

20

Dean Smith

Addax Team

80.817

21

Leonardo Cordeiro

Carlin

87.518

22

Thomas Hylkema

Tech 1 Racing

109.087

Ret

Alexander Sims

Status Grand Prix

9 laps

Ret

Maxim Zimin

Jenzer Motorsport

9 laps

Ret

Marlon Stockinger

Atech CRS GP

6 laps

Ret

Daniel Mancinelli

RSC Mucke Motorsport

3 laps

Ret

Antonio Felix da Costa

Status Grand Prix

1 lap

Ret

Callum MacLeod

Carlin

1 lap

Ret

Nick Yelloly

Atech CRS GP

0 laps

Ret

Zoel Amberg

Atech CRS GP

0 laps

Bottas Wins Again To Extend Championship Lead was last modified: September 3rd, 2011